Searching for software that automates the planning, management and deployment of complex releases and test environments across the enterprise in a simple and transparent manner? Sydney, Australia-based Plutora[1] enables companies to manage their enterprise IT pipeline, enterprise IT releases and IT environments with an Enterprise Release Management and Planning, Test Environment Management and Deployment Plan application. It’s a robust on-demand Enterprise IT Release Management software built from the ground up to help organizations deliver effective and efficient releases while driving real value back to your business through improved efficiency via roadmap features.

“Plutora was conceived from real world experience while dealing with the non-existent Enterprise IT Release Management software problem,” explains Sean Hamawi, director and co-founder of Plutora. “Our experiences as executives delivering complex systems within large financial services institutions over the last five years and with no other direct product offerings meant this market was ripe for disruption.”

Hamawi and his colleagues saw a need for a simple and transparent way to manage the flow of features from business stakeholders through various IT environments, ultimately culminating in a release to customers. The IT landscape was also becoming more complex through multi-sourcing arrangements, multiple vendor involvement, globally distributed teams and a move to cloud-based services. Passionate about building a better solution, the executive-assembled team at Plutora left their corporate roles to build the startup. Plutora, which is a member of the Rackspace Startup Program, is a privately-held company since 2012.

“We started out doing this via various spreadsheets, intranets and extranets, which were updated manually,” says Hamawi. “Maintaining these disparate sources just wasn’t working and was eventually abandoned. This often resulted in costly delays and failed releases. Every other tool we explored didn’t do what we needed or was bloated with features we didn’t need. So, we built the Plutora software and application platform from the ground up on Rackspace. We came to the conclusion that Rackspace was the leader in cloud hosting solutions. We felt that the flexibility, scalability and level of control that Rackspace offers was the best cloud solution for Plutora and our customers”

Looking ahead, Hamawi says, Plutora will focus on growth.

“At Plutora we are building software using deep subject matter knowledge of the problems we are solving. We are passionate about these problems and our solution as we have lived through the pain of bad process and lost efficiencies,” concludes Hamawi. “User feedback has validated our passion through stellar product feedback, and when your users are telling you that you’re onto a ‘winner’ you know all that hard work will pay off. This is going to be a busy year for the team at Plutora. Our core focus will be on customer acquisition, product marketing, product development and hiring talented people.”

The Rackspace Startup Program[2] continues to provide more and more startups with a world class open cloud computing platform upon which to build their businesses. Contact the Space Cowboys[3] to find out how you can get the rocket fuel to launch your startup.